Unified Night Music
by Heartfelt Fancy
Summary: When Renko Usami finds one of her classmates half frozen to death on a cold winter's evening and takes her inside, she sets her fate on a path that will lead her into a world of fantasy. The title won't make sense until later in the story. Rating may change to T.
1. Fateful Encounter

Author's Note: Hello, this is my first try at a real, serious Touhou fanfiction. It's Renko-centric, with Maribel and Yorihime as supporting characters. Will contain Maribel x Renko and Yorihime x Reimu, possibly other pairings. I hope you all like it!

* * *

It was a cold winter's evening, and Renko Usami was cursing her luck as she sat in the front row of a bus that had just broken down about a mile from her dorm building. Even bundled up in a thick coat, she was dreading the long walk ahead of her. Everyone else had already filtered off the bus to start on their way home, and she supposed it was about time she followed suit. She stood, tossed her simple black bag over her shoulder, and started off on her way.

Unbearably cold? Yes, Renko thought as she walked on alone. The first minute had been bad. The few following had been better, as she'd adjusted somewhat to the cold. But a few more minutes, and a breeze started to pick up. Even with a coat on, she was shivering and clutching her arms to her sides, and without a hat, she couldn't even feel her ears after a minute. The streets were almost empty, and the few others who were about dashed by between doors, hurrying out of the cold as quickly as possible. She wished she could follow them, but she did have to get back to the dorm before it got too late, cold or no.

The wind howled unpleasantly, and Renko tucked her frigid hands under her arms in a vain attempt to shield them. She had been walking for close to half an hour, and she had passed several familiar signs. She was so close, and when she saw the corner of the dorm building come into view, she started to run for it. Warmth and shelter, so close!

…until she tripped over something and went tumbling to the sidewalk with an undignified squeak.

"Oww…" Renko winced as she got up, minus her dignity and plus a bruised knee and scraped palms. She glanced back to see what she had tripped on, only to see another student (weren't they in Ceramics together?) lying on the concrete, her white mob cap in her hands instead of its usual place on her head. A foreigner, judging by her face and her blonde hair, and rather quiet, from what she'd seen of her. Renko didn't even know her name.

"Hey, you okay?" Renko asked, going over to the girl and kneeling next to her. She mumbled something that Renko couldn't understand. It sounded like English, and the less said about Renko's performance in her English classes, the better. "…I don't speak English, could you say that again?"

"A-ah… I said, 'ow, great, not only am I freezing but now my side hurts'," the blonde said in a soft, slightly hoarse voice. She looked up at Renko with vivid gold eyes. Renko had never seen anyone with gold eyes before.

"Sorry about that. What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be inside?" Renko asked.

"I should… I feel awful. I went to buy some cold medicine and collapsed out here on the way back. I'm too weak to get up... I'm so cold, please help me…" the girl said. She sounded, and looked, completely pitiful. And if she was sick, lying out here in the cold was probably just making it worse.

"Don't worry, I'll get you inside. Here…" Renko pulled the blonde into a sitting position, and with one of the girl's arms around her shoulders and one of her arms around the girl's waist, managed to lift her even though she was taller. It didn't take long to carry the girl inside, and Renko set her on one of the chairs in the common area. It was refreshingly warm, and Renko rubbed her hands together to warm them faster.

"Thank you," the girl said.

"Yeah, of course. I couldn't just leave you there. I'll help you to your room too," Renko said, offering a friendly smile.

"Thank you again. You're being very nice, and I hardly know you. I don't know how I'll ever repay you," the girl said. "If you really don't mind helping me, I'm in 208 W."

"Ah, you live just a couple rooms away from me! I'm in 212 W. So it'll be no trouble. Come on, then," Renko said. She carefully lifted the other girl again, and started up the stairs with her. It was a bit of a struggle for Renko, but luckily it was just the one flight of stairs, and by the time they got up to the top, the other girl could partly support herself, though Renko still had to hold on to her.

"By the way… I don't think I know your name," Renko said while they walked down the hall.

"Maribel. I'm Maribel Hearn, and I don't think I know yours either," the girl said.

"Mari… ber?" Renko tried. "No, that doesn't sound right… um, my name's Renko Usami. Nice to officially meet you, Mariber…. Meriberi… Mari."

Maribel giggled.

"Mari is fine. It's nice to officially meet you too, Renko." They stopped outside of Maribel's room, and Maribel fished the keys out of her pocket. Inside, Renko was greeted with the messiest dorm room ever. The desk was covered in arcane-looking scribbles on notebook paper, a pile of textbooks sat at the foot of the unmade bed, and you could barely see the carpet under the scattered clothes.

"Nice Pikachu panties," Renko commented as she stepped over the undergarment in question.

"Sh-shut up! I didn't think anyone was going to come over… ah, how embarrassing…" Maribel sat down on the bed, crumpling the sheets even more.

"Haha. Anyways, will you be alright if I leave you here?" Renko said. Maribel nodded, a small smile on her face.

"Yeah. Thank you so much for helping me, I'm glad to be out of the cold. I'll take some medicine, get some rest… hopefully I'll feel better in the morning. I'll have to find some way to repay you for this," she said.

"Don't worry about repaying me, Mari. Just get better, and maybe we can study together sometime," Renko said. Maribel smiled, and waved as Renko left to return to her own room.

* * *

It had been a week, and Renko had yet to see Maribel again. She walked into the Ceramics classroom, set her backpack by the door, put on an apron, and started over to her usual spot- and Maribel apparently had switched spots with the chatty girl Renko sat next to and had never liked.

"Hi, Mari! What are you doing over here?" Renko said, sitting down next to the blonde girl, who was molding some clay onto an already-large chunk that looked vaguely dragonish.

"Renko, good morning. Well, it just so happened that I sat next to the best friend of that girl who used to sit here. I thought maybe I'd ask her to switch. I hope you don't mind," Maribel said with a sweet smile.

"Haha, I don't mind at all! What are you working on?"

They talked all through class, and while Renko was almost finished with a rather pathetically lopsided teapot, Maribel had made an intricate statue of a dragon.

* * *

That evening, Renko was in her room just typing up the last lines of an essay for her required English class when she heard a knock on the door.

"One second," Renko called, quickly saving her work before getting up. She opened the door to see Maribel standing there with a grin on her face.

"Oh, hi Mari. What's up?"

"Well, I got you a thank-you gift since you helped me out last week. I really could have died if it hadn't been for you. So here, I hope you like it," Maribel said, pulling a cute purple gift bag out from behind her back and offering it to Renko. Renko took it, blinking twice in surprise.

"Ah… thank you, Mari, you didn't have to…" she said. Maribel continued to smile at her, and it was obvious she expected Renko to open it immediately. She reached into the pink tissue paper, and her fingers met fabric. She pulled out a brand-new black fedora, with a trim white ribbon for a band and a cute bow on one side.

There was a moment of silence, Renko staring at the hat, as Maribel's smile slowly started to vanish.

"…I-if you don't like it, you can return it and get a different ki-" Maribel started, looking timidly off to the side.

"It's fantastic! I've always wanted a cool hat!" Renko interrupted, cheerfully placing it on her head. It was a perfect fit.

Maribel's delighted squeal could be heard several rooms away.


	2. Third Member of the Sealing Club

I seem to have a thing for characters rescuing other characters o3o Luckily, I stop doing that after this chapter.

* * *

Years in the future, but not many, a girl who looked like she couldn't possibly be a day over twenty-one woke up where she had meant to only stop for a short break the previous night, and got up slowly, a bit shakily. She had a sword strapped to her waist that had an empty space in the hilt where a gem had been pried out, a yellow ribbon in her long, tangled lilac hair, and fading bruises on her unnaturally pale forearms.

Yorihime had been walking for a few weeks, and she missed the moon. The air was heavy here, and the light was strange, and she couldn't see the horizon through all these trees. This was less of a problem, though, than the way there was so much impurity permeating the ground and the trees and everything, she was starting to not even notice it anymore.

And that scared her- it meant she was either getting desensitized, or exhaustion and lack of food and water were taking a bigger toll on her than she had thought. Or, quite likely, both.

She was so caught up in these thoughts that she failed to notice the steep drop-off in front of her, and the Lunarian tumbled down the hill with a startled cry that hurt her dry throat. She didn't tumble far, though, before slamming into a tree.

This time, Yorihime didn't even bother to get up. She had fallen off of hills a few times before and simply kept on going. But where was she even trying to go? She couldn't go back to the moon. She didn't know where anything was on this blasted planet, or if there was anything worth looking for. And even though she was so thirsty, her throat was begging her to get back up just to look for water, the leafy forest floor was almost… comfortable… even with the pain in her arms, her legs, her empty stomach, and now her side…

She didn't realize she had fallen asleep, or maybe passed out, until a voice woke her up.

"Hey! Hey, whoever screamed earlier! Are you in trouble? Do you need help?" Someone was calling from not too far away. Yorihime wondered for a minute who this person was talking about. She hadn't heard any scream- wait. They were looking for her.

She forced herself to sit up, back against the tree. It could only be a human; she was on Earth after all. But she supposed she had nothing to lose. Whatever dignity she had possessed was stripped away when she'd been exiled.

"I'm… here. Help," Yorihime called, as loudly as she could manage. Her fuzzy thoughts couldn't come up with anything better. She coughed into her elbow a few times while she listened for any kind of response.

"Don't worry, we'll be right there!" The voice sounded a bit closer now. Yorihime stared at the top of the hill where she had fallen from, and without her noticing, her eyes started to close again, until suddenly a human girl in a black fedora and another human girl with long blonde hair entered her field of vision. The one in the fedora slid down the hill, managing to stay on her feet as she did, and stopped herself just beside Yorihime.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt anywhere?" the girl asked, dark rust-brown eyes full of concern.

"I… please, I need water…" Yorihime had the vague sense she should say something else, but her throat was so dry it hurt to speak. Luckily, it seemed like the girl could tell Yorihime was in more trouble than just being thirsty.

"Mari, I think we should take her back to where we're camping," she said to the other girl, who was still at the top of the hill.

"That sounds like a good idea," the blonde said back.

"Alright, come on. We're going to take you to our campsite, we have water there," the girl said, to Yorihime this time. She offered Yorihime her hand, and helped the Lunarian to her feet. Getting back up to the top of the hill was painful, and once she'd made it, both of the human girls helped support her, one on each side, as they walked. After about ten minutes, they reached a clearing at the bottom of a hill, a stream running through only a few feet from a tent and right beside the stone-lined hole that looked like it had been used for a campfire.

While the darker-haired girl with the fedora ran off, the blonde carefully set Yorihime down where she could sit against a rock. The other girl returned with two bottles of water, and after the second one Yorihime's head felt considerably clearer and her throat had stopped hurting.

"Thank you," Yorihime said, her voice still a bit quiet and weak. At least she could speak clearly.

"Of course. It's the third rule of camping- never leave someone who needs your help," the blonde girl said, speaking up for the first time. She sounded, and looked, very familiar.

"…Third?" Yorihime said, while trying to think why this girl looked so familiar.

"The second rule is, if you have a fire make sure someone is watching it at all times. And the first is, don't get eaten by wild animals," the blonde said.

"Ah, those sound like very good rules." Yorihime said.

"Yup! Oh, and since you seem a bit perkier, I should say- my name is Maribel Hearn, and my friend is Renko Usami. What's your name?" the blonde girl practically chirped, offering her hand.

"Watatsuki no Yorihime," Yorihime said absently, accepting the handshake. She immediately mentally berated herself for just giving out her name to an Earth human so freely.

"Uh. What?" Maribel said, blinking.

"Wait, as in Tamayori-hime, the younger sister from the Dragon Palace, who married her sister's so-" Renko started.

"That never happened, and I'm from the moon, not the Dragon Palace. But yes, that myth was inspired by me and my sister," Yorihime interrupted. Even though her first instinct was not to say anything about the Lunar Capital… if she was exiled for life anyways, what was there to lose?

"From the moon? But people go to the moon all the time and there was nothing there," Maribel said. Though was it Yorihime's imagination, or did she look a bit unsure of her words?

"That's because they didn't look on the other side of the spiritual barrier that protects the Lunar Capital," Yorihime said.

"So does that mean you know Kaguya-hime?" Renko said. She and Maribel both looked rather excited.

"Third cousin on my father's side. Kind of a bitch, though I heard she got a lot nicer when she started living on Earth. She's still here somewhere, she never actually went back." Yorihime frowned slightly. "…Miss Hearn, you look rather familiar. I don't suppose you have any relation to a Yukari Yakumo?"

"No, I don't think I've ever heard that name before," Maribel said.

"So if you're from the moon and you're related to Kaguya-hime, what are you doing in the middle of the woods on Earth so dehydrated you can barely stand, with more leaves in your hair than there is hair?" Renko asked.

There was a full minute of silence, Yorihime staring awkwardly at Renko while Renko stared back, arms crossed, and Maribel looked back and forth between the two, waiting for one to speak.

Finally, Yorihime sighed and started to explain. It hurt to bring those memories back, even as fresh as they were, but she supposed she couldn't heal if she didn't acknowledge the reason for the pain.

"I… was exiled. It is the harshest punishment under Lunarian law, reserved for traitors, murderers, and those who drink the elixir of immortality. Now, I am still capable of dying, and there is nobody in the Lunar Capital more loyal than I… was. I am no murderer either, though… someone, I don't know who, framed me, and did an excellent job of it. That was a month ago," she said, voice almost completely flat and emotionless until the end. She started shaking slightly as she went on, trying not to start crying. "…nobody believed me… even… even my own sister said I deserved this…"

Renko elbowed Maribel, who knelt beside Yorihime and comfortingly put an arm around her shoulder. The Lunarian instantly clung to Maribel, shaking with quiet sobs even as she tried to stifle them.

"Hey, uh… Miss Watatsuki. If there's anything we could do to help clear your name, I don't believe you could kill someone like that," Renko offered once Yorihime had managed to calm herself down and fall silent.

"There is no way for me to return to raise an argument in the first place. Especially because the boundary between the Lunar Capital and the moon you see is maintained by my sister... my sister who believes I am a murderer," Yorihime said. She paused, and then looked up with a small, shaky smile. "…Your words are kind, though. Thank you, Miss Usami. And you, Miss Hearn."

"Of course. Ah, and… if you aren't sure what to do, you can stay with us. You shouldn't have to be all alone," Renko said.

"A-Are you sure about that?" Yorihime blinked. Since when were humans so nice?

"Yeah. I mean, if you can't go home it's the least we can do to help you out. Mari, you agree, right?" Renko shot Maribel a look.

"Of course I agree. Besides, it's not every day you get to help an alien from the moon!" the blonde said, smiling.

Yorihime managed a small, amused smile at this remark. Maybe, if these two humans weren't just acting, everything would be okay.


End file.
